East Green Lake, 7201 E. Green Lake Drive N., open from 2-7 p.m. weekdays and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekends now through June 23; then will be open 12-7 p.m. weekdays and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekends from June 24 through Aug. 27.

West Green Lake, 7312 W. Green Lake Drive, will be open from June 24 through Sept. 4.

Seattle Parks also offers free beginning swim lessons for kids ages 6-16 from 12:15-12:45 p.m. weekdays at all nine beaches. Register in advance or at each beach beginning June 24.

Wading pools will be open on days with sunny skies and temperatures of at least 70 degrees. Call the wading pool hotline at 206-684-7796 after 9 a.m. daily to see if wading pools are open.

Bitter Lake Community Center, 13035 Linden Ave. N., open from 12-7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, from June 27 through Aug. 18.

Green Lake Park, North 73rd Street and West Green Lake Drive, open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily from June 24 through Sept. 4.

Soundview Play Field, 1590 NW 90th St., open from 12-7 p.m. Monday, Saturday and Sunday from June 26 through Aug. 20.

Lowery C. “Pop” Mounger Pool, 2535 32nd Ave. W, open daily now through Sept. 10, with a “big pool” with a 50-foot corkscrew slide, and a warmer, shallower “little pool” for relaxing and teaching little ones.

Colman Pool, 8603 Fauntleroy Way SW, with heated salt water and giant tube slide, open June 19 through Sept. 4, plus the weekends of June 10-11 and June 17-18 (but closed for the Seattle Open Swim Meets July 6, 7, 8, 14 and 15).

Discovery Park in Magnolia now has a free beach shuttle that will operate from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, now through Sept. 4 (previously, you had to park your car and hike 1-1/2 miles or get one of a very few parking permits). The shuttle also will operate on Tuesday, July 4, and Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 4. The shuttle will operate between the Visitors Center parking lot, north parking lot bus stop, and the beach parking lot. The beach lot has two stalls reserved for disabled placards – you can pick up those permits at the Visitor Center.

June 6th, 2017 by Doree

Seattle Parks and Recreation is again offering its free Summer Food Service Program to any child aged 18 and younger at numerous locations throughout the city, from the end of June through late August.

The Summer Food Service Program also provides a late supper to teens participating in Parks and Rec’s Late Night Program (which runs from 7 p.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays). While that Late Night Program is designed to provide a safe space and resources to teens ages 13-19, anyone 18 and under can come for food service. The only Late Night Program location near Phinney-Greenwood is at the Bitter Lake Community Center, 13035 Linden Ave. N., which will serve supper from 9-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday from June 26 through Sept. 1.

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May 18th, 2017 by Doree

Seattle Parks and Recreation’s “Connecting Kids to Nature” program at Carkeek Park has won a $20,000 grant from the “Meet Me at the Park” campaign by the National Recreation and Park Association and The Walt Disney Company.

The $20,000 grant will help restore a vital environmental education connection trail between the salmon-bearing creek in Carkeek Park and the Viewlands Elementary School that sits adjacent to the park. The project will connect kids to nature by rebuilding and rerouting parts of the trail to provide safe, equitable access for the school and the surrounding community.

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March 20th, 2017 by Doree

Mural artists were back out at the new park site by the Greenwood Library on Greenwood Avenue and North 81st Street this past week, making the empty buildings look nicer until they’re demolished sometime in April for park construction.

February 3rd, 2017 by Doree

After several community meetings and input through online surveys, the final design provides natural play spaces for children (including a nature trail), picnic seating, digging area, reading nook, dog “stations” and an elevated crosswalk to connect it to the Greenwood Library.

Total cost for development of the site, which takes the entire east side of the block of Greenwood Avenue North between North 81st and 82nd streets, is $1,073,285. But it will be done in two phases. The Parks Department originally acquired the south parcel (where a small strip mall contained several businesses), then later acquired the north parcel (where Bleacher’s Pub was). Parks currently has enough money to develop the south parcel (estimated construction costs of $573,285) but not the north parcel (estimated construction costs of $500,00). The north parcel will have primarily lawn for the time being, until more funding is acquired.

Seattle Department of Transportation will provide $65,906 for the raised crosswalk across North 81st Street to connect it to the library. The raised crosswalk is essentially a large speed bump.

All buildings on the site will be demolished between March and May this year. Construction will take place from January through May 2018.

January 30th, 2017 by Doree

The park will be directly north of the Greenwood Library, taking over the entire east side of Greenwood Avenue between North 81st and 82nd streets.

Seattle Parks and Recreation presented three concepts at its Nov. 2 meeting. At Wednesday’s meeting, Cascade Design Collaborative designers will present their current design and gather feedback.

The design elements include natural play elements, an open lawn, a gathering/ plaza space with seating, a loop path, and planted areas. The project also includes low-impact design strategies featuring amended soils, porous concrete, and increased infiltration created by the new open space. Street improvements as well as a raised crosswalk connecting the Greenwood branch library to the park are proposed and will provide better community connections. All of these elements were identified by the community during the design phase of this project.

SPR purchased two property sites between N 81st and N 82nd on the east side of Greenwood to develop a park (the mini-mart site purchased in Nov. 2012 and the pub property immediately north, which was purchased in July 2015). The two buildings will be demolished in mid to late March. SPR anticipates demolition to be complete by the end of May 2017.

January 17th, 2017 by Doree

Seattle Parks and Recreation presented three concepts at its Nov. 2 meeting, and collected feedback from meeting attendees and through an online survey. At the Feb. 1 meeting, Cascade Design Collaborative designers will present their current design and gather feedback.

According to the park development website, the timeline has been pushed back a bit because of permitting delays for demolishing the old Bleacher’s Pub and commercial building (they were originally scheduled to be demolished last fall).

The park will fill the entire east side of the Greenwood Avenue block between North 81st and 82nd streets. Funding comes from the Seattle Park District.

A park stewardship group, Friends of Greenwood Library Park, has started a Facebook page.

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November 21st, 2016 by Doree

Seattle Parks and Recreation will replace the wood pilings at both the east and west swimming beaches at Green Lake Park with steel piles beginning Tuesday. The pilings secure swim area ropes and floats.

The Green Lake Trail will be temporarily closed near the Small Craft Center on the east side Tuesday morning to launch the barge and crane. The trail will need to be closed again on Dec. 6 to remove the barge and crane.

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November 16th, 2016 by Doree

The all-volunteer group Friends of the Library Park is hosting a meeting tonight to get more community input on the new park coming to the east side Greenwood Avenue North between NW 81st and 82nd avenues, adjacent to the Greenwood Library.

The meeting is at 7 p.m. tonight (Wednesday) at the Greenwood Senior Center, 525 N. 85th St.

More than 100 people gave their input at the first public meeting on Nov. 2. Seattle Parks and Recreation presented three concepts that were different arrangements of similar functions: play, open space, seating, gathering spaces and landscaping. Another Parks Department meeting will come sometime in January (date to be determined).